Fanfare Reviews
from July/August 2002

Reviews: Balada - Mozart - Persichetti

BALADA Cuatris.^1,7 Geometrias No. 1.^1,7 Homage to Casals.^1,9 Homage to Sarasate.⁸ Mosaico.⁵ Quasi un pasodoble.^2,10 Song and Dance.^3,4,6 Union of the Oceans^3,6 • Leonardo Balada,¹ Enrique Garcia Asensio,² Denis Colwell,³ Jorge Mester,⁸ cond; Katy Shackleton-Williams (sop),⁴ American Brass Qnt;⁵ Carnegie Mellon Wind Ens;⁶ Conjunto Cameristico de Barcelona;⁷ Louisville O;⁸ SO de Barcelona i Natl de Catalunya;⁹ SO de la Radio TV Espanola¹⁰ • ALBANY 417 (72:32)

This compilation provided my introduction to the music of Leonardo Balada (b. 1933). Entitled The Abstract and the Ethnic, the disc offers a survey of what are considered the composer's second and third periods of endeavor, being--logically--concerned with abstract and ethnic musical thought respectively. To my tastes, the abstract portion of the program has infinitely more to offer. The disc opens with Geometrias No. 1 (1966), the first of Balada's self-described abstract compositions. It is not quite nine minutes of brilliant hilarity, scored for wind quintet plus percussion that suggests the brilliance of Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre some 20 years before the fact. Almost as brilliant is the five-movement Cuatris (1969) for variable scoring of keyboard (here prepared piano) and three melody instruments (here flute, clarinet, and trombone). In part because of the presence of the prepared piano, the music recalls John Cage--rather as if the Sonatas and Interludes had somehow been successfully mated with the Falla Harpsichord Concerto. Doubts begin to creep in with the brass quintet, Mosaico (1970), where the devices from the two earlier works are redeployed, but the work nevertheless has difficulty sustaining its 11-and-a-half-minute duration.

The ethnic portion of the program cements those doubts, and I find nothing as compelling as the two pieces from the 60s. Homage to Casals, Homage to Sarasate (both 1975), and Quasi un pasadoble (1981) essentially graft tonal themes on top of Balada's cluster-based language to little effect. In Union of the Oceans (1993), written to commemorate the opening of the Philippe Cousteau maritime museum, I find myself feeling as if I am listening to a large orchestra tuning up and practicing before a performance of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. Song and Dance are excerpts from Balada's as yet unperformed opera Death of Columbus (1992).

The performances, most of them under Balada's direction, seem fine. The recordings come from a variety of venues dating back to 1969 and must be, the DDD of the album to the contrary, at least partially analog in origin. The orchestral recordings, particularly the ones taken from live concerts, are all a mite tubby. After the marvelous opening works, I found the disc a disappointment.

John Story

MOZART Serenades: No. 1 in D, K 100; No. 10 in B-Flat, K 361 • Jean-Jacques Kantorow, cond; Tapiola Sinfonietta • BIS CD 1010 (76:22)

What an interesting pairing--the earliest (and probably weakest) of Mozart's serenades with what is unquestionably his finest, and surely one of the towering masterpieces in his canon. Doubtless the earlier of the two scores illustrates how precocious and professional he was at age 13, but it gives virtually no hint of the sensual melodic richness and harmonic daring that was to come. These abound in K 361, of course. It is superbly played, if occasionally with tempos that are less orthodox than customary, most notably in the unhurried finale and in slow sections that are slightly more forward-moving than usual. Then, too, Kantarow is uncommonly attentive to dynamic shadings, which, along with the crisp articulation he secures, animate and heighten expression throughout. And the presence of a conductor here surely contributes to the exemplary balances and expressivity of timbres that further enrich the reading. This work has not lacked distinguished recorded performances, but this can hold its own with the best. The account of K 100 is aptly direct and unaffected, but is not the main issue here. Fine sound throughout.

Mortimer H. Frank

PERSICHETTI Parable for Band, op.121. SYLER Minton's Playhouse. ZANINELLI Lagan Love. MASLANKA Symphony No. 5 • Stephen K. Steele, cond; Illinois State University Wind S • ALBANY 500 (66:45)

Vincent Persichetti's 1972 Parable is the ninth in a series of works under that title, a rather free form like a fantasia, which in fact allows the composer to take any formal course he wants in the music's unfolding. The language is a blend of modernism's chromaticism and neoclassicism's clarity. While the tone is quite serious, the craft impeccable, and the gestures often have dramatic weight, I nevertheless find the piece a bit grey.

James Syler's (b.1961) Minton 's Playhouse (1994) pays tribute to the 118th Street nightclub that was the hothouse from which jazz's bebop movement emerged. The piece is quite deliberately cinematic in the way it cuts and overlays other musical events around the one continuous layer in the first half of the piece, an original ballad by the composer. The result is a sort of "tone-dream" of the subject, slightly Ivesian in its blend of elements. The conclusion is a breakneck section that suggests Charlie Parker's breakthrough into bebop, featuring brilliant close ensemble playing within the saxophone section. One thing that is particularly effective about the work is the way one feels it is a piece for jazz ensemble, "framed" by the colors and textures of full wind ensemble.

Luigi Zaninelli (b.1932) composed his Lagan Love in 1999 as a result of a trip to Ireland to hear a premiere of a different work of his. While there, he heard a folk song which so moved him he was compelled to make an arrangement of it, which is touching and effective precisely because of its restraint and refusal to lead to a mawkish climax.

David Maslanka (b.1943) has carved out a substantial reputation as a composer for band, all the while nestled away in Montana. His Fifth Symphony is based on various Bach chorales, though the derivation of his own music from the sources often makes an immediate aural connection hard to discern (something in fact I applaud; if this sort of thing gets too obvious, it becomes too trite a referential gesture). This is music that is feverishly driven, urgent in its need to express its underlying meanings. Prokofiev lurks in the background as an influence, to my ear. It is wildly romantic in spirit, and not averse to indulging in grotesquerie--the second movement, for example, seems to careen between circus march and jungle dance, with a break drum whacking away throughout. For my taste, it's all a little too over-the-top, but what keeps it from becoming camp or too much like a soundtrack is its obvious sincerity, wide stylistic/expressive spectrum, and willingness to take risks (to take just one example, the third movement's extended euphonium solo, which at one point sounds like a Middle Eastern improvisation). I also recognize Maslanka's ambition, and his determination to treat the wind ensemble as a medium fully capable of carrying the weight of a true symphonic argument.

This program is calibrated to show off the ensemble's mastery in a variety of styles: modernist classical, jazz, folk song. In fact, each piece is well above the average in its class, and Stephen Steele is to be saluted for his willingness to take risks. The performances by the ISU Wind Symphony are impassioned and absolutely on the mark. If I have any reservations about the music itself, it has nothing to do with the band's interpretations. My only carp is that the recorded sound is at a dynamic level a little too low, creating an unwanted "distance" to the sound.

Robert Carl

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Fanfare Reviews from July/August 2002

Fanfare Reviews
from July/August 2002